Even an insider admits that he used to pass on this brand when he was a salesman.
In May 2022, Onkyo filed for bankruptcy in the Osaka District Court. The 76-year-old Japanese audio brand that helped define home theater for a debt-ridden generation can’t afford it, and it’s gone.
But its engineers were not there.
Months of acquisitions earlier had drawn Onkyo’s entire Osaka engineering division to the same family as Klipsch, a microphone company born in Arkansas. That group now designs the amplification, DSP, and distribution electronics inside Klipsch-powered speakers and sound bars.
The technical mind of the power products of the Japanese brand of one of the most prominent companies of the big American speaker, and the new owner of the business is betting that the partnership has not yet begun.
Eight Months Before Bankruptcy
Onkyo’s slide was public and widespread. The company was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange in August 2021 after consecutive years of negative profits, hampered by a failed acquisition deal in 2019, the COVID-19 shutdown, and a semiconductor shortage that killed new product launches. Also, total liabilities have reached 3.1 billion yen, about 24 million dollars.
VOXX International and Sharp saw the opening. In September 2021, a few weeks after the delisting, the two companies paid $30.8 million for Onkyo’s audio-video division, pulling engineering talent, intellectual property, and product lines from Premium Audio Company (PAC), a subsidiary of Klipsch.
When Onkyo’s parent filed for bankruptcy eight months later, key assets were safe under new ownership. Revenue per distributor predecessor jumped from $13.7 million to $59.4 million in the first full year, a 334% increase that suggests the brand has a hunger for investment, not a need.
Both companies, as it happens, share a year of birth. Klipsch and Onkyo were both founded in 1946, one making full-horn speakers in Arkansas while the other made loudspeakers in Osaka. And about eighty years, that’s where the similarities end.
But Marcus Buckler, PAC’s American training manager who trains salespeople on every product made by Klipsch and Onkyo, has seen the change from within.
“I’ve had times in my career where Onkyo, even when I was selling, wasn’t my favorite brand. And they were in turmoil and I think we got them at the right time,” Buckler told the newspaper. Not an Audiophile a podcast.
They needed a new home for a big name in audio and it’s a perfect fit for Onkyo,”
Two Teams, One Product
Inside the Klipsch powered speakers and soundbars, Onkyo’s Osaka engineers handle amplification, DSP, and electronic distribution. But the final product still has to meet the same test as any Klipsch speaker.
Before it goes, it has to sound like a Klipsch.
That requirement is important because the Klipsch sound is built around a horn-loaded driver design.
Horn loaded speakers match the driver to the wind so effectively that the amplifier does not have to suppress. Less amplifier effort means less distortion, which translates into less impressive volume and sharper detail at any listening level.
And this is where the Onkyo partnership changes the practical work.
The driver, cabinet, amplifier, DSP, and broadcast platform are all specified before the first listening test, so Osaka and Hope aren’t solving different problems after the fact. They tune one complete system from scratch.
That was proven by the first product
Buckler says the two brands plan to build more products using this integration model, and early results support the ambition.
The first “Powered by Onkyo” product was the Flexus sound bar system. Its flagship, the Core 300, pushes 5.1.2 channels around 13 drivers and 285 watts of Onkyo-designed amplification, and reviewers have called it the first soundbar with integrated Dirac Live room processing.
In fact, even the hot design carries the AVR DNA. Buckler describes the heat sinks placed on the front of the entry-level hoods, mounted behind the fabric grill so that cold air flows continuously without the fan.
And now, Klipsch and Onkyo are using the same logic beyond soundbars. Dynamic monitors with Dolby Atmos virtualization are next, extending the partnership from living room theater products to the type of compact speaker systems where Klipsch already has a strong presence. Buckler ranks them as the industry’s first potential, aggregating the claim to 99%.
“I’d say 99% of listeners, they can prove me wrong, but it’s also the first where the AVR brand designed and built the internals of a powerful monitor from an unknown speakerphone. And that design and internals are the difference,” Buckler said.
VU meters and CD Carousels
Onkyo’s Osaka team doesn’t just build Klipsch electronics. The brand is rebuilding its independent identity, and Buckler describes the current push as a return to hi-fi for a company best known for AV receivers in its later years.
Unveiled at CES 2025, the Icon Series leads the way, with the P-80 network preamplifier and M-80 power amplifier priced at $1,999 each and the A-50 integrated amplifier at $1,499.
On the M-80, analog VU meters glow behind the glass, real gauges the team insisted on over digital simulations. Their appeal is deliberately old school, linking the new line to the golden age of Japanese two-channel audio that Onkyo helped define.
But the clearest evidence of audience demand may be the least trendy product on the list. The Onkyo CD carousel, a field that most of the industry abandoned years ago, has become an unexpected phenomenon.
“[The CD carousel] it’s not just a product. It is one of Onkyo’s best-selling products that we make. If it’s in the store, if it’s on the shelf, it’s gone that week and they get another one,” Buckler said.
For Onkyo, the Icon Series offers a way back to high-fidelity hi-fi, while the CD carousel shows that the renewed brand can still channel the nostalgia available in retail.
Who Pays Next
The Onkyo-Klipsch partnership now depends on more than engineering chemistry. It also depends on whether the new parent company is willing to keep supporting manufacturing, product development, and R&D behind it.
In April 2025, Gentex Corporation closed its acquisition of VOXX International for $7.50 per share, bringing Klipsch, Onkyo, and Integra under the roof of the Michigan-based OEM auto manufacturer with thousands of employees and decades of steady growth.
For Buckler, the contrast could not be sharper.
“It’s not a private company coming in to take your margin,” said Buckler.
His argument is that private equity ownership tends to squeeze short-term margins from audio brands rather than funding the R&D they need to compete. Gentex, by contrast, has already invested in Hope, the Arkansas factory where Klipsch products are made, starting with a new roof and a raise for workers.
On Onkyo’s side, R&D spending has been what Buckler called “swinging high,” with “significant” annual increases since VOXX acquired the brand in 2021. He refuses to share specific numbers but says he has seen the graphs, and the trend line points in one direction.
Those investments change the stakes. The Onkyo-Klipsch partnership is no longer just a salvage story about assets that survived bankruptcy. It now has funding behind it to become a long-term strategy for the brand.
Buckler, describing a recent conversation with his boss about the Gentex era, puts the timing simply.
“We’re getting ready to run. Before we get too busy, let’s sit back and enjoy it. This is the start of the long haul,” Buckler said.
For audiophiles writing Onkyo to close in 2022, the real test now is whether that long route turns into products that feel less like a salvaged product and more like a critical second act.